Thursday, January 01, 2009

A Tale of Two Poinsettias - Holiday 2008 Edition


As much as I love poinsettias, they just do not thrive under my care. Water, don't water, cool house, warm house, sunlight, shadow... These actually look pretty good - for me. I have three yellowy green leaves, curled but still attached. This year I watered one and left the other alone -- NO DIFFERENCE! Except one turned pink, haha - no. I love pink poinsettias but also get a red one, too, since maybe they've had enough genetic practice with the reds to make one to last longer. Evidently I haven't found it. I'll walk by offices months from now and see thriving poinsettias, with new leaves yet. Or there will be newspaper stories (December 21, 2007) of how someone planted theirs outside and it grew into a hedge! Or those articles of how to keep and make your poinsettia bloom from year to year by sticking in a dark area for x number of nights and days. Yeah, I'll stick it in a dark area - the garbage can!

Photo by Brenda Beust Smith/Houston Chronicle

1 comment:

YayaOrchid said...

Give it a try, plant one outside. They do actually grow better than in the pot. As for me, well, I'm afraid I don't have good dirt, so they only languish for about a year, then they're done for.